


the early bird gets the worm

by wafflelate



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Further Reincarnation, Gen, Konoha’s Founding, Warring Clans Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-06 00:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18840310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate
Summary: Being ten years oldagainis frustrating, but at least this lifetime comes with some excellent educational opportunities.





	the early bird gets the worm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Charientist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charientist/gifts).



When the village comes together, Shikako has plans. 

The first, and most long-term, is to kill Uchiha Madara. The exact details are a work in progress — will she have a team to help her fight him? Can she just poison him? — but it’s a solid, necessary goal. If he dies, that solves... _almost_ everything. Hopefully. 

The second, more immediate plan is to become Senju Tobirama’s first student. 

The downside of being ten is that they don’t want to let her into the field. It’s a mistake, pretty much, but instead of complaining about it Shikako leverages it to get put to work in the newly-formed Tower, which is not yet a tower so much as a loose collection of Mokuton buildings set against the bottom of the cliffs that will be Hokage mountain as soon as someone thinks to put Hashirama’s face on it. In the event of an attack, the administrative buildings will make a defensible outpost for anyone caught outside of their clan compound, so the buildings are surrounded by walls and a gate just like the clan compounds. 

Working there — or, well, showing up and waiting for adults to send her on errands — is the best way to be put in contact with ninja from other clans and, specifically, the best place to rustle up a certain teacher. 

They just have her running papers, which is boring but puts Shikako in contact with a wide variety of people: grumpy Senju Tōka who would rather be on a mission, nervous Uchiha Hikaku who seems to handle _everything_ for his clan because Madara’s never around, and even Nara clan members Shikako hasn’t had a chance to get to know. 

For example: Hōryū, who’s in charge of drafts of the legal code and often works late. Every evening, on her way out of the administrative compound, Shikako stops by his small office. 

“Ah, Isui-chan, you’re still here?” he says, when he notices her lingering in the doorway. He’s calling her by the name she had before her father in this lifetime died — before her older brother named her clan heir. 

She doesn’t correct him. She _likes_ the name “Shikako” and still thinks of herself _as_ “Shikako”, but names don’t really matter much. Besides, she’d hate for anyone to think she really wants to be clanhead rather than handing it over to Shikayū and Nigatsu’s kids. 

“I was helping sort some paperwork,” Shikako says. “Merchants who want to join the village.” 

“Well, that is important,” Hōryū says, “but you definitely missed dinner at home, didn’t you? Did you eat?” 

Shikako huffs at him like the ten year old little girl she regrettably is _again_. “Yes,” she says. “Nigatsu had leftovers from dinner brought over for me. She knew I’d forget to eat otherwise.” 

“Hmm, she was a good choice to be his wife,” Hōryū muses. Shikako happens to know he helped arrange that marriage, so he’s really just patting himself on the back. 

“I’m leaving soon,” Shikako adds, “but do you need anything?” 

The sun is sinking and most of the errand-runners went home at least an hour ago. Shikako herself is due home before it’s _completely_ dark, because although there’s not _really_ anything to fear about being out late, the whole Nara clan gets twitchy about it anyway, so it’s best not to fight it. Usually she even tries to make it home for dinner, but the paperwork really had urgently needed sorting and, besides, she’s been hoping for— 

“Ah, yes,” Hōryū says. “If it’s not too much trouble, could you drop this by Senju Tobirama’s office? He won’t bite. Probably.” 

— _that_. 

“If he bites, I’ll bite back,” Shikako promises, and takes the scroll Hōryū is holding out. “Don’t work too hard, jii-san!” 

Then she leaves quickly, before his suddenly worried look can turn into actual protest. 

Tobirama works in a different building, across the administrative compound. Shikako can’t shunshin there, because everyone’s still a little too jumpy about even the most mild technique usage, but she can cut down her time by taking to the roofs. Surely eventually _someone_ will tell Hashirama to re-enforce the tops of buildings for better roof jumping, but for now careful application of chakra reinforcement to the surface of each as she lands preventing any unfortunate accidents. Being ten and tiny helps, too. 

Shikako does drop down to the street and use the door to enter the building, though. People just aren’t used to the whole windows thing. Yet. And Tobirama feels like a bad person to startle. 

The office Tobirama works in is on the second floor. Before Shikako can make it to the stairs, she’s intercepted by a Senju man who holds out his hand. “Give that here,” he says. 

Shikako blinks at him slowly and does not give him the scroll. “No.” 

He’s taken aback, but soon settles his expression into a disapproving and slightly condescending frown. “Listen, Nara-chan, it’s been a long day—” 

Okay, it’s still really bad form to use jutsu around out-clan ninja, especially in enclosed spaces, but does it really count if _no one notices?_ Shikako creates an illusionary clone to take her place standing there listening to the man tell her while she should really hand over important documentation to someone she’s never met before and carefully sneaks away up the slightly wonky stairs. 

(Are they wonky to deter potential invaders? Or is Hashirama just not that good at stairs yet? The world may never know.) 

At the top of the stairs there’s a short hall with only a few doors, most of which hum with active seals. This must be the start of the archives, which makes sense — Tobirama probably wouldn’t want to be too far away from them — although Shikako doesn’t think that the village has produced _that much_ sensitive paperwork _already_. Maybe some of the doors are decoys, or maybe Tobirama just prepared more space in advance, or maybe one of the doors is to a room that needs to be secure for some other reason. 

Tobirama’s office is at the end of the hall, looking incongruously welcoming with the door standing open, soft lamplight flickering on the mokuton door. The sun hasn’t quite started to set yet, but the shadow of the mountain makes for a deep and cool shadow across this part of the village once it passes noon. Hōryū had been using one of her LED seals, but of course the Nara haven’t shared those yet. There’s no stink of sardine oil, so Tobirama must be burning something more expensive. Rapeseed oil, maybe. 

Worth it in Shikako’s book, but probably kind of a tax on the budget. Maybe she can talk him into implementing the LED seals if she explains how they work. You know, if he’ll listen to a ten-year-old. 

When she gets to the door — intending to knock politely — she finds Tobirama already looking at her. Which, well. He is a sensor. Of course he’d know she was coming. She hadn’t even been suppressing her chakra. 

Shikako is suddenly, unaccountably nervous. It’s the _Nidaime_. She technically snuck up here. Maybe that was a bad idea. 

“Well?” Tobirama prompts. 

Right. Shikako takes that as an invitation and steps into the room, pulling out the scroll Hōryū had given her. “From Nara Hōryū,” she says, wiggling the scroll at him like maybe he hadn’t noticed it. In the future, in her last life, she might have thrown the scroll across the room — if Tobirama had indicated he wanted such a thing — but no one’s quite figured out the trick to rolling seals so they don’t fly open half the time they’re thrown, so that’s not yet appropriate office conduct. Instead she has to step up to his desk and put it with all the rest. 

There are a lot. He doesn’t look like he’s at all close to going home, though she’d kind of expected to walk in on him packing his desk up. 

“Ah,” Tobirama says. Then, after a short pause, “Thank you for bringing it to me,” like the words are unfamiliar. 

“Sure,” Shikako says. Then she remembers when she is and hastily follows up with, “It was no problem. Uh, I should probably let you get back to work?” 

Instead of agreeing that she should go, he looks at her a little more intently. “Did you need something else, Nara-chan?” 

Why does this suddenly feel like a minefield? 

“I was just thinking about...” She glances at the lamp on Tobirama’s desk. “Hōryū-jii-san can’t read very well by lamplight, so I made him a seal, and I was wondering if you’d want...?” 

“A seal that makes light?” Tobirama sits up straighter. “I didn’t know the Nara had anything like that — does it produce electricity?” 

She should have known that mentioning seals would be the way to get Tobirama’s attention, although she’s surprised that Tobirama doesn’t already _know_ that the Nara have light seals. It’s not as if Shikayū has particularly been trying to hide that the Nara have seals, even though he’s cautioned Shikako against telling anyone that she made them. 

“It just — makes light. Better light. I could show you?” 

“Tempting,” Tobirama says, and Shikako thinks he even actually means it. “However... your clan would likely take issue with you sharing knowledge so freely.” 

Shikako huffs, annoyed. “I _know_ ,” she complains. “Which is stupid because _I_ made the seal, so _I_ should get to share it. But I guess now I don’t have any plausible deniability.” 

Tobirama blinks at her. “You made the seal.” He says the words like he’s testing them, like they’re unbelievable. 

“So I could read more,” Shikako says. “Without stinky oil. Bleugh.” 

There’s a stretch of silence, where Tobirama seems to be weighing her words — probably because it’s pretty strange for a ten year old to be inventing _anything_ — and then he rifles through the papers on his desk for a blank piece of paper, through his desk drawers for a bottle of ink suitable for sealing. “I want to see the seal,” he says, “but I’ll look away while you draw.” 

He turns away from the desk, studying the scene out the window, where the slight height of being on the second floor and the position of this building give a straight line of sight almost to the gates of the administrative section of the village. 

Shikako leans over the desk, picks the brush up, dips it into ink infused with Tobirama’s chakra, and paints the seal in steady lines one at a time. When she’s done, she gives Tobirama a brief explanation of how the seal converts the energy into light without any noticeable heat, emitted the light at a level of brightness best for reading. 

“You studied the light conditions most productive to reading?” Tobirama asks, after her explanation is done and he’s put out his lamp so she can show off the clean light of the seal, holding it above his desk about where Hōryū has his, more or less desk-lamp height. 

Shikako shakes her head. “No, we had a book about it in the clan library. Someone investigated it a couple years before I was born.” That’s not even a lie. There’s a Nara clan library book for _every_ subject. 

“...but you made this seal,” Tobirama says slowly. “I didn’t know the Nara had seals, much less someone taking on talented students.” 

_Talented!_

“Ah, no, I’m not anyone’s student,” Shikako says. 

“Then how did you learn?” He pauses. “No one in the clan is teaching you _anything?_ ” 

“No one has anything left to teach me,” Shikako says, kind of embarrassed. It’s not like she’s a genius, not like him — she’s just cheating twice over. 

Tobirama studies is silent for a long time, just studying her with his sharp eyes. “What do you want to learn?” 

“Everything,” Shikako says immediately. “Anything. There’s no such thing as useless knowledge.” 

Tobirama nods. He says, “I could teach you a few things.” Then, a little more doubtfully, he tacks on: “...if your clan head approves, of course.” 

“I bet he well,” Shikako says — and then it’s time to say goodbye and go home, before someone comes looking for her. 

Shikayū isn’t an _idiot_ , of course, and also couldn’t stop Shikako from being Tobirama’s student even if he wanted to, so he agrees when she asks him that night. He just says, “Be careful,” in a way that means he trusts her judgement and will also absolutely destroy the village if Shikako is harmed. 

When she shows up bright and early the next morning calling him sensei, Tobirama looks at her like she’s something entirely new and very dangerous. “I didn’t expect your clan head to agree,” he admits. 

That’s probably a bad sign. 

“Well, I think you’re kind of stuck with me? I mean. You’ll have to teach me _something_ , even if it’s just your paperwork filing system.” Shikako looks around the room at Tobirama’s work and his crammed desk, and wrinkles her nose at the thought of dealing with any of it. “Shikayū won’t be happy if you just brush me off,” she adds, for good measure. 

It’s kind of a low blow, bringing politics into it, especially because if push comes to shove Shikako _will_ just smooth over Shikayū’s offense at Tobirama brushing her off. But _Tobirama_ doesn’t know that, and it’s important to use all resources one has to their fullest extent. 

Tobirama visibly pauses in his paperwork shuffle. “...Right,” he says, “because Shikayū-sama is your...?” 

“Older brother.” She gives him a little wave. “I guess I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Nara Shikako. Or, well, you’re out-clan — the ‘shika’ naming scheme is an heir thing, but I’ll probably go back to being Nara Isui soon enough. No one really expects me to inherit.” 

This is the exact moment, Shikako supposes, that Senju Tobirama realizes she’s the current Nara heir. Only until one of Shikayū’s kids is old enough for it, but it’s an important position, especially in this day and age. And Tobirama has already said yes, so it’s not like he really has a choice. 

Tobirama stands. 

It’s really actually happening. 

He says, “I assume Shikayū-sama has no problem with you coming to a Senju training field with me?” 

Shikako practically bounces after him, giddy, only barely able to restrain herself from skipping in his wake. 

There’s no one alive who could possibly understand exactly how incredible it is that she’s being taught by _Senju Tobirama_ , especially because from what she’s overheard the Senju don’t even seem to realize what a genius he is yet, but that’s _their_ loss. Shikako gets to be his first student, and she’ll have so much time to learn everything in this life: killing Madara sooner would be better, but if it has to wait until she’s well into adulthood, she’ll still be more than early enough. 

The training field is boring and plain but ringed with Hashirama trees, so it feels just right. Tobirama makes her stretch first, which Shikako puts up with good-naturedly because Tobirama has a little crease on his brow that maybe probably means he’s worried. 

“We’ll start with an assessment,” he says when she’s stretched enough. He goes through a string of unfamiliar hand seals, but the movement of his chakra is familiar. A shadow clone puffs into existence next to him, and he moves back, away from the fight, to observe. 

“Come at me with the intent to kill,” the clone says — and it would figure that that Team 7 tradition came straight from the beginning. 

Shikako doesn’t go at the clone with everything she has, not by a longshot, because she does have to be able to get home under her own power and because there are some things she can do that not even Shikayū knows, still, like every shadow jutsu she’d learned in her previous life. But she has chakra control and seals and she goes at Tobirama’s clone exactly like she would go after an enemy. 

She knows she only has this one chance to impress Tobirama. 

She can’t afford to let it go to waste. 

She wins the fight by finally darting in close enough to slap a touch blast on the clone and then throwing herself into earth walk to get away from the ensuing explosion. 

Afterwards, Tobirama drags her out of the earth by the ankle, his chakra filtering through the earth around her to move it out of the way of his extraction. When she’s far enough out of the earth to set her hands on the ground below her, he lets her ankle go and she flips back upright onto her feet. 

Tobirama is looking... surprised. 

“Now what, sensei?” she asks, bouncing on her heels in anticipation. “That was a good warm-up, but you’re gonna teach me something fun, right?” 

Tobirama mutters, “ _Fun?_ ” under his breath. He sounds more worried than exasperated, which makes Shikako look at him more closely. 

It occurs to her... given that it had taken so much wheedling to get him to agree to actually teach her in a training field... and given that _he_ hadn’t thought Shikayū would agree... and given the extremely focused, thoughtful look on his face... 

...that maybe Senju Tobirama isn’t really sure how to teach her. 

Ridiculous. Everyone knows the Nidaime was the _best_ teacher. 

“Something challenging?” Shikako clarifies. “Something new? We could just spar?” 

“Right,” Tobirama says, with relief that’s obvious to her now. “Those I can do.” 

She ends the training session pleasantly exhausted, laying on her back in the cool grass of the training field, flushing chakra through her muscles to get rid of the worst of the aches. Tobirama is standing above her, looking none the worse for wear because he has the absolutely unfair benefit of being an _adult_. 

“Lunch time?” she asks him hopefully, and sticks a hand out at him to be helped up off the ground. “Akimichi will feed us for free.” 

He looks briefly uncomfortable with the thought of eating another clan’s food, but after he hauls her up onto her feet he says, “Very well. Then I have to return to my duties.” He pauses. “Meet me here tomorrow an hour earlier than you arrived at my office this morning.” 

“Yes!” Shikako crows and then, because she still hasn’t let go of his hand, she starts to pull him in the general direction of the Akimichi. He’s probably never had barbeque before, and definitely never _Akimichi_ barbeque, so it’s her duty as his student to correct that. 


End file.
